Alan Moore interview

[abelardsnazz]

Interview with the Bard of Northampton here: [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/oct/07/watchmen-author-alan-moore-im-definitely-done-with-comics?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other]

A return to Future Shocks seems unlikely, unfortunately.

[Jim_Campbell]

It's a great interview, as interviews with Alan Moore usually are. It's nice that he doesn't have to spend the whole thing talking about Watchmen for the gazillionth time.

(Your link seems to have gone slightly awry, abelardsnazz, so here's a working version: LINK.)

[Barrington Boots]

Superb interview this and nice to see Mervyn Peake getting cited as an influence alongside the usual literary suspects.

[robprosser]

He's entertaining as ever but basically spends his time disparaging people who like comics. Weird as, on the whole, they're his core readership.

I hadn't realised he'd disowned Promethea as well. Apart from LOEG, From Hell and Lost Girls is there anything he hasn't disowned?

[nxylas]

He's entertaining as ever but basically spends his time disparaging people who like comics. Weird as, on the whole, they're his core readership.

I hadn't realised he'd disowned Promethea as well. Apart from LOEG, From Hell and Lost Girls is there anything he hasn't disowned?

"Disowned" seems to have been the journalist's choice of words, not Moore's. He seems to still be proud of it, but he's not the type to rest on his laurels. I think it was more a "that was then, this is now" type of statement.

And I don't think he was disparaging everyone who loves comics, just the more toxic elements of comic fandom.

[robprosser]

Do people who queue to see Barman movies the represent toxic element of fandom? He refers to readers of comics as infantile. Also regarding Promethea he's quoted "I've disowned it now".

I'm a big fan of Moore but this interview and others in recent years have annoyed me. I get he's disgruntled with the industry but there does seem to be a fair amount of ire aimed at readers. The other thing I've wondered over the years is how many times did he have to get bitten before getting proper representation when working for the big companies? At some point you surely look at yourself and think you're at least partly at fault.

[Richard]

The article says:

And he now looks with dismay on the way the superhero genre in which he once worked has eaten the culture. "Hundreds of thousands of adults [are] lining up to see characters and situations that had been created to entertain the 12-year-old boys – and it was always boys – of 50 years ago. I didn't really think that superheroes were adult fare. I think that this was a misunderstanding born of what happened in the 1980s – to which I must put my hand up to a considerable share of the blame, though it was not intentional – when things like Watchmen were first appearing. There were an awful lot of headlines saying 'Comics Have Grown Up'. I tend to think that, no, comics hadn't grown up. There were a few titles that were more adult than people were used to. But the majority of comics titles were pretty much the same as they'd ever been. It wasn't comics growing up. I think it was more comics meeting the emotional age of the audience coming the other way."

[Richard]

It's not comics fans per se. It's superhero fans.

[Funt Solo]

At some point you surely look at yourself and think you're at least partly at fault.

Said the male judge to the female rape victim.

My point being: getting fucked over a lot doesn't mean you're to blame for getting fucked over. You might just be getting fucked over a lot by fuckers who like to fuck over people. Fuck, that's a lot of fucks. I should have probably used a f*cking asterisk or something.

[Jim_Campbell]

It's not comics fans per se. It's superhero fans.

He's not even having a pop at superhero fans — he's saying that superhero comics are an inherently juvenile genre (not actually a controversial statement) and that, in a time when fascism is on the March, its popularity may not be a good thing. To his credit, Moore has consistently said that he regrets dressing it up in a way that has made it seem like a 'respectable' adult genre. Liking kids' stuff as a grown-up is fine, but Moore clearly regrets his part in making it acceptable to pretend that a genre that is foundationally based on adolescent power fantasies is 'grown-up' material.

Frank Miller is 65.

[Richard]

To be fair, Watchmen subverted the genre and ridiculed its premise, portraying most of his superheroes as pathetic fantasists or sadists.

[nxylas]

Also regarding Promethea he's quoted "I've disowned it now".

Oh yeah, I re-read the article and noticed that. Oh well, too late to go back and edit my previous post now.

[Funt Solo]

Also regarding Promethea he's quoted "I've disowned it now".

Oh yeah, I re-read the article and noticed that. Oh well, too late to go back and edit my previous post now.

Selling it short though - because it skips the context:

"I've disowned it now [another casualty of his falling out with DC], but it was, and is, a very good work."

Taking just the first four words and highlighting them removes the context entirely. "I don't like ice cream immediately after eating 23 pancakes" isn't the same as "I don't like ice cream".

[Jim_Campbell]

To be fair, Watchmen subverted the genre and ridiculed its premise, portraying most of his superheroes as pathetic fantasists or sadists.

...And the number of comic fans who completely missed this point and, for example, think that Rorschach is the hero fairly neatly illustrates the problem Moore refers to.

[nxylas]

To be fair, Watchmen subverted the genre and ridiculed its premise, portraying most of his superheroes as pathetic fantasists or sadists.

...And the number of comic fans who completely missed this point and, for example, think that Rorschach is the hero fairly neatly illustrates the problem Moore refers to.

Or Ozymandias. There were reviewers even at the time who thought that Moore was in favour of the alien squid plan.